Russia's largest independent oil producer OAO Lukoil won't face Kazakh government opposition to a deal to buy full control of Turgai Petroleum...
Russia's largest independent oil producer OAO Lukoil (LKOH.RS) won't face Kazakh government opposition to a deal to buy full control of Turgai Petroleum and hopes to close a deal by the end of the year, a Lukoil spokesman said Tuesday.
Monday, the Kommersant daily reported that Lukoil plans to exercise its preemptive right to acquire 100% of the Kazakh firm, which operates the Kumkol field containing about 177 million barrels of proven oil reserves.
Already holding a 50% stake in the company, Lukoil will - for an undisclosed price - buy the other half from PetroKazakhstan Inc., which is majority owned by China National Petroleum Corporation, or CNPC, China's largest oil and natural gas company.
Analysts estimated the full value of Turgai Petroleum, which last year produced 3.5 million metric tons of oil, to be around $1.7 billion.
A Lukoil spokesman said that Lukoil had been in talks with CNPC over a deal that would give the Russian company a stake in assets in third countries in exchange for which Lukoil would abandon its preemptive right to buy out a 50% stake in Turgai Petroleum.
